JMB suspects held in Jamalpur

JMB suspects held in Jamalpur

Threat letters to Barisal Unicef, WFP

Six suspected members of the banned Islamist militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), including two women, were arrested in the early hours yesterday in Jamalpur town.

A joint team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police raided a house at Phulbaria Munshipara in the town around 12:30am, hauled the six and took them to Jamalpur Sadar Police Station.

Later, they were arrested them under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code and produced before a local court, which placed them on a five-day remand each.

The arrestees are Abdus Salam, 25, of Daspara in Modhupur of Tangail, Mizanur Rahman, 21, of Gopinathpur in Sarishabari of Jamalpur, Mohammad Zakaria, 28, of Krishnapur in Nalitabari of Sherpur, his wife Rabeya Begum, 23, Tareque Mostafa Masum, 29, of Moghbazar in Dhaka, and his wife Syeda Halima Yasmeen.

They had rented the ground floor of the three-storey house at Munshipara around one and a half months ago.

Contacted last night, Officer-in-Charge of Jamalpur Police Station Abdul Matin said that during primary interrogation, the arrestees said they are followers of Prof Abdul Majid of Charfasion upazila in Bhola.

“We are checking whether the detainees are involved with JMB or any other militant organisation,” he said.

Our Correspondent reports from Barisal: Three separate letters in Bangla signed as JMB reached Unicef, International Federation of Red Cross and World Food Programme Barisal offices by post yesterday afternoon.

Assistant Commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police Hayatul Islam told The Daily Star that the officials of the organisations submitted copies of the letters to police. Visiting the offices, police have increased the surveillance activities in the areas, he added.

The sender of the hand written letters had threatened to kill the chiefs of the organisations if they didn’t stop their operations and quit Bangladesh immediately, said Hayatul.

He further said police are preparing to lodge a general diary and take special security measures in this connection.